thinking about that bbc piece again where they visited a US navy ship, and everyone interviewed moaned about missing their treats and being homesick...

US Navy aircraft carrier faces relentless battle against Houthi attacks (18 Mar 2024)

Unlike the Houthis, they're away from home with few creature comforts. Every meal on board is literally feeding the five thousand. The food bill on the carrier alone is $2m (£1.6m) a month.

Captain Chris Hill, the commanding officer of Ike, says "people need breaks, they need to go home".

But he says they don't yet have dates for when that'll happen. So one of his tasks is to maintain the crews morale and resilience.

He even has a dog on board to help. Demo, a facility dog who's been trained for life on the carrier, walks the mess decks to help lift the crew's spirits.

and...

Captain Hill says: "It's difficult to define winning and losing in this kind of conflict."

"Ideally, we want to stop every Houthi attack."

When I ask whether that's achievable, he replies that it's "hard to say".

[–] [email protected] 57 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

It's also a case of the sailors onboard the US Navy ships having to be successful everytime in their missile defence or intercept missions, while the Houthis only need to have one successful attack to sink a US Navy ship. It's unsustainable long term for the US Navy, one mistake and one of their ships is toast. The US has been forced to the negotiation table by the Houthis military actions.

[–] [email protected] 57 points 7 months ago

anti-thatcher-action the old adage holds true

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